


Fine, More Than Fine

by Lunaraen



Category: MCSM, Minecraft Story Mode
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Monsters, Paranoia, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 02:40:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17572730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunaraen/pseuds/Lunaraen
Summary: Jesse knows what she’s doing and he fully believes that.But.But if Lukas, who spends so much time around her, isn’t fine, is stuck in this perpetual haze of happiness and disorientation, it might mean trouble for her. They’ve gone up against all sorts of monsters, artifacts, machines, unholy hybrids of the three, and more, and it’s not uncommon for the people around Jesse to be targeted, or to run into trouble and drag her into it.





	Fine, More Than Fine

Lukas is fine, really.

 _There’s flashes of red twisting in the corner of his vision_ – which in general has been as hazy and disconnected as he’s been feeling lately, but that could just be exhaustion. It’s one too many nights of bad sleep, that’s all, even though he’s been sleeping dead through the night for the past few weeks without fail, not enough water and probably just because of how he almost tripped onto his face when he got out of bed, rather than the other way around. He’s tired, but never been happier. Never been better.

Really, he’s perfectly fine.

Not to say somethings haven’t worried him, but he’s not worried for himself. He’s a little concerned for Jesse, but aren’t they all?

She’s been a little weaker?– no, a little more subdued lately, a little less full force or entirely present in training and adventures and more encouraging and tactical, but Petra’s just grumpy Jesse hasn’t been going on many adventures lately, or almost any at all herself. She makes plans, sweeping strategies, but the world’s slowed down a bit and so has their workload.

Ivor hasn’t said much about it, shifty as he is even when he’s concerned, but what little he’s grumbled about Lukas can’t help but agree with.

Lately might count for the past few weeks, but months feel more accurate. It’s not the sudden shift Petra makes it out to be, obvious and understandable to all but those trying to stay stubbornly blind.

It makes sense Jesse’s finally having to take it easy, after going so long and doing so many stupid things without a helmet.

(Lukas and Ivor don’t have helmets either, Lukas’s own goggles useful for aiming in the rain and for riding and still no more likely to spare him from a head-wound, but they’re much more ranged fighters and Ivor’s potions give him such an edge that their foes tend to be more concerned about the durability and reliability of their own helmets than what Ivor is or isn’t wearing.)

Jesse’s not weak for being smart about things, even if she’s too stubborn to normally wear a helmet, and where she may be subdued in combat reflects nothing about how much she still cares about all of them.

She nags and worries and teases as much as she always has, as drained as she might seem, because tired or not, a little paler with those dark circles under her eyes, she’s still Jesse.

They’re all a little more wearied nowadays, Lukas thinks. He knows he certainly is.

They haven’t been heroes all that long, only a couple years, but life moves on and their lives just seem to get busier. Of course Jesse’s a little more tired,  _of course_  Lukas is a little sluggish,  _Petra_ , they’ve been busy with the city and everything else,  _stop moping about it_.

(Petra’s always been a thing of war, whether that’s the state of things around her or the state of herself. Lukas doesn’t know the last time she let herself relax without questioning it, and as sympathetic as he might be, it’s gone beyond pitiful. Things would be so much easier if she could accept things moving on, people changing, without taking it as a sign of things to fall. After everything, they’re still her friends, their roof just as much hers to be sheltered under, the good food and warmth meant to be shared rather than eyed at and distrusted.

He pitied her, sympathized and understood, for a long time.

Lukas is done pitying.

Now her behavior just seems just aggravating, ungrateful,  _selfish_ , and he’s as happy as he is furious that Petra spends more and more of her time avoiding them all underground or elsewhere, looking for adventures she doesn’t think Jesse can give her.)

And Jesse, Jesse’s always had the worst nightmares. It’s hardly surprising she stays up as long as she does, catching bits of rest in the morning and afternoon instead.

It’s a blessing she at least relaxes at night, more often cuddling with Lukas is his bed than staying up doing paperwork at her desk and pulling her hair out. She might get little to no sleep, awake when he dozes and dozing only when he awakes, but the rest is valuable for someone with so much on their shoulders.

He won’t act as if he isn’t partly selfish in appreciating it.

Having her there means he always falls asleep quickly, as breathless from kissing and generally sluggish as their cuddling gets him on top of the general tired feeling.

(Lukas rests his hand against his neck– well, his shirt collar, for only half a second, trying and failing to keep a smile off his face. It follows a grimace, but in fairness, he expects it to. So much as tracing the area, just above his collar bone and along the side of his throat, with his fingers makes it ache something awful and makes his face twist into a wince, and that’s no real surprise. It’s part of why he’s been wearing more high collared shirts lately than he ever used to, he’s sure– Jesse leaves the worst hickies, the kind not always best hidden even by his jacket.)

More than just a little of Lukas would like to return the favor and help her get to sleep, but he’s learned not to take it personally.

Jesse feels bad enough about the nightmares as it is, and she’s made it clear him being there when the night terrors bother her is enough, a hand to hold and a familiar body to curl up next to.

He worries about when she’ll let herself start taking rather than just giving so much of herself to everyone and everything, but it’s a work in progress, something that needs a little time rather than paranoia and pacing like Petra’s been giving into when she isn’t being snarky.

Jesse knows what she’s doing and he fully believes that.

But.

But if Lukas, who spends so much time around her, isn’t fine, is stuck in this perpetual haze of happiness and disorientation, it might mean trouble for her. They’ve gone up against all sorts of monsters, artifacts, machines, unholy hybrids of the three, and more, and it’s not uncommon for the people around Jesse to be targeted, or to run into trouble and drag her into it.

What if something happens and she needs him to be somebody other than content and spent? What if someone tries something and he could be the one to see it, to spot the trouble before it’s too late?

What if he’s exhausted and out of it for different reasons, infected with something dangerous, already becoming a potential pawn for somebody with a grudge against Jesse?

(There are so many people like that, people they’ve fought against who just don’t know when to accept defeat and let things die.)

Lukas remembers PAMA, every now and then, and his blood goes cold each time.

PAMA messed with his senses, twisted what he did and made his thoughts cluttered and painful by dumping the thoughts of everyone else connected to PAMA into his head.

The splitting in his head was sharp and loud and constant, unlike the flighty, intermittent haze that’s decided to plague his thoughts.

He’d recognize if that happened again.

As used to being tired as he is, though, he isn’t sure when he started seeing shapes out of the corner of his eye, or when his vision grew as disoriented as it likes to be, dizzy as he sometimes gets for seemingly no reason.

Lukas would never willingly turn on Jesse, but how easy would it be for someone to trick him, to claim him as a tool and use him that way?

What if he hallucinated at the wrong time, turned on a shadow that turned out to be her?

He spends the next couple of hours more paranoid than he should be, cagey with thoughts like that and every drabble or bit or writing getting scratched out almost immediately afterwards, feeling wrong and not helping his mood. The few books he digs up on monsters and spells and curses are old, print small and making his head spin even more.

Lukas doesn’t get far through those.

Dinner helps though, going by in a more comfortable blur of gentle jokes and tasty courses, because Jesse would rather drag him by the jacket than let him mope in his room and miss such a meal, and the tension’s begun to bleed from his shoulders by the time he finds himself in his bed, Jesse’s fingers dancing on his shoulder and tugging at his shirt as she tries to muffle her giggles in his other shoulder.

(They’ve been hit by some pretty heavy stints of cloudy weather in the past few weeks, but it only started to rain right before dinner started, when Jesse checked in on him after an afternoon nap, and it helps too, the constant thrum of rain light but steady.

It makes the outlandish paranoia feel small and the comfort feel ridiculously large, like something he can fall into and be kept safe and sound by.)

Jesse’s worn out, strategic, and amazing in every single way, not stupid.

If he really was a threat, she’d consider that and see it first, know before he would. She knows better than anyone what to look for, how to expect her friends to turn on her, as much of a surprise blessing as a clear curse.

She wouldn’t be laughing, or smiling, or kissing him if there was a real problem.

That last thought, reassuring even in how it brings up prior bad memories, steals the last of the tension, which doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Finally.” Jesse’s chin is half propped on his shoulder, fingers pulling his collar down. Her smile’s soft, teeth not showing while her eyes seem to light up. “I thought your arms were going to snap or something.”

Lukas can hear it in her voice, the way her smile’s wide but just a bit strained at the edges. She’s trying not to laugh, something that seems to get harder as he rolls his eyes and kisses her on the cheek.

(The giggles return after a few more persistent small kisses like that, and Lukas feels better in this moment than he has all day.)

“ _Hah_.” Jesse’s usually the one worrying the rest of them, but still, she worries. She worries so much, about everything and everyone, and Lukas isn’t going to add to those troubles. “Yeah, well, not happening. I’m fine. I’ve… just been tired.”

Jesse’s smile is still more sad than it was just a second ago, not meeting her eyes, but it isn’t her fault and it never will be. She’s never done anything other than help.

There’s a flash of something as his vision shakes again, and he’s just so beat.

He should ignore it.

It doesn’t matter. Not really.

But something about it sticks in his mind, stubborn and fitting right into place.

The flash of fangs, brief and glinting in the candlelight before plunging into his neck, is familiar, normal, at place in the scene when it shouldn’t be, not at all, and some desperate corner of his mind clicks it all together.

Huh.

Lukas supposes he should have seen that coming.

(He’s relieved and he doesn’t know why, not really. He’s grateful he’s not a monster or losing his mind, not in the way he’d thought, but something deep and twisted grows contented with the knowledge that Jesse’s not in any danger here and it’s almost enough to be unsettling all over again.

Almost.)

“Well then,” Jesse’s voice lowers, her hot breath still on his neck even as she gently nudges his shoulder with hers, “get some sleep.”

It’s a mumbled whisper, a command all the same, and his eyes fall shut without a second thought.

He thinks part of, if not most of him, has known for a while.

It’s not the shock it should be.


End file.
